Share this with

BBC boss Tony Hall says the channel is ‘unsustainable with the resources we have’ (Picture: BBC)

The BBC has ‘lost great programmes’ because of budget cuts, says boss Tony Hall.

The director general says the BBC is short on cash and needs to find more in order to continue its current output.

Hall said ‘the cracks are beginning to show’ thanks to cuts to the BBC’s budget by governments over the years.

‘We do not believe what we currently do is sustainable with the resources we have,’ The Guardian quotes him telling the Royal Television Society conference.

‘Great programmes have been decommissioned or lost to other broadcasters, purely to meet savings targets,’ he added.

The Great British Bake Off is now on Channel 4 (Picture: Mark Bourdillon/BBC)

‘We could of course continue to do less. But the public don’t like cuts to BBC services.

‘It’s their BBC and they want more from us, not less.’

Advertisement

Advertisement

The BBC board will ‘consult on possible options’ to keep up with the costs of running the BBC as it is.

Hall admitted that they are having to deal with ‘the fact some talent is going to go to Netflix, Amazon and Apple’, but insisted that ‘if we back things that they would not do but are really important to this country, then we’ve got a future.’